The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-30
WHAT NIHILTsM MEANS.
Patriotic Sentiments with Which Wendell
Phillips Shocked Harvard COLLEGE.

Phillips Shocked Harvard College.
Extract from Address Delivered June 90. 1881
Nihiism is the righteous and honorable
sistance of a people crushed under iron rule.
Nihilsm is evidence of life. When "order
Ieigns in Warsaw" it is spiritual death Nihii-
ism is the last weapon OF victims choked and
mapacled beyond all other resistance 1t Is
crushed humanity's only means of making the
oppressor tremble God means that unjust
power shall be insecure; and every move of the
giant. PROSTATE in chains, whether 1t be to hit
a single dagger stir cltys revolt, Is a
lesson in justice. One might well tremble for the
future of the race il such despotism could exist
without provoking the bloodesr resistance L
honor Nihilism, since it redeems human nature
from the suspicion of being utterly vile. made
up only of Leartless oppressors and contenteG
slaves Every line In our history, every interest
of civilization. bids us rejoice when the tyrant
grows pale and the slave rebellious. We cannot
but pity the suffering of any human being, how
ever richly deserved; but such pity must not
confuse moral sense. Humanity gains
Chatham rejoiced when our fathers rebelled
For every single reason they alleged Russia
counts a hundred, each one ten times bltterer
than any Hancock or Adams could give. Sam
Johnsons standing toast in Oxford port was
''Succass the first insurrection of slaves in
Jamaica"-a sentiment Southey echoed. '.Es-
chew can't" said that old moralst. But of all
the cants that canted in this canting world.
though the cant of piety may be the worst the
cant of Americans bewailing Russian Nlhlllsm
is the most disgusting
know what reform needs. and all it needs in
land where discussion is free, the press I'M
bate. There, as Emerson says. what the ten
der and poetic youth dreams to-day and conjures
up with inarticulate speech is to- DC orrow the
vociferated result of public opinion, and the day
after is the charter of nations" Leber said in
1870: Bismarck proclaims to-day in the Diet
the very principles for which we were hunted
and exiied fifty years ago" Submitto risk your
daily bread, expect social ostracism, count on
mob now and then, "be in earnest. don't equivo-
cate don't excuse, don't retreat single inch,
and you will finally be heard.
In such a land he is doub1y and trebly guilty
who, except in some most extreme case, dis
turbs the sober rule of law and order.
But such is not Russia. In Russia there is no
press. no debate. no explanation of what govern
ment does, no remonstrance allowed, no agita-
ton of public issues. Dead silence. like that
which regns ct the summit of Mont Blanc.
freezes the whole empire, long ago described as
"a despotism tempered by assassination"
Meanwhile, such despotism has unsettled the
brains of the ruling race. unbridled power
doubtless made some of the twelve Caesars
insane-a madman, sporting with the lives and
comfort of hundred millions of The
young girl whispers in her mothers ear, under
q ceiled roof, her pity for brother
knouted and dragged half dead into exile for
his opinions. The next week she is stripped
naked and fogged to death in the public square.
No inquiry, explanation, protest; one
dead, uniform silence, the law of the tyrant.
Where is there ground for any hope of peaceful
change2 Where the fucrum upon which you
plant any possible leverl
Macchiavellis sorry picture of poor human
nature would be fulsome fatterv If men could
keep still under such oppression. No, no! In
such o land dynamite and the dagger are the
Hall and the Daily Advertiser Anything that
will make the mailman quake in his bed
chamber and rouse his victims into reckless and
desperate Resistance. This is the only view
American. the child of 1920 and 1916. can take
of Nihilism Any other unsettles and perplexeS
the ethics of our civilization.